ABSTRACT
A troublesome and unresolved paradox has long beset developmental theories
of the cognitive structural type: The claim for universality of the processes and
sequences of development contradicts the failure ofmost developing individu-
als to reach the topmost levels or stages of developmental progress. Thus, only
about one third of adolescents or young adults reach the stage of full formal op-
erations (Neimark, 1985; Piaget, 1970, 1972; Shayer, Demetriou, & Pervez,
1988). Only a small number of Kohlberg’s respondents reached the
postconventional stages (Colby, Kohlberg, Gibbs,&Lieberman, 1983; Snarey
& Keljo, 1991), and only a minority achieved Loevinger’s (1979) integrated
level of ego functioning.
